Saturday, July 26, 2003

Prof. Myers has made a huge impact in nature conservation and been responsible, along with Conservation International, for $500 million being directed towards 25 global biodiversity hotspots which merit urgent protection and have been identified on the basis of their species richness, endemism (uniqueness) + threat of destruction .

Prior to this method of priority setting being proposed + adopted, conservation effort had tended to be allocated in a rather ad hoc fashion according to where was available, subjectively selected or uncontroversial...

P.S. Monday 28th July: Prof. Myers + Sir Crispin Tickell (a former UK ambassador to the UN) have today written a comment piece for the Financial Times outlining why environmentalists and economists should find common cause in dismantling costly, outdated + damaging perverse subisides. Such subsidies encourage over production in the agricultural sector, the over-fishing of depleted fisheries, the burning of excessive fossil fuels + slow sectoral reform and innovation.